OREANDA-NEWS. Yesterday, the Russian FX market held another strong session, with USDRUB touching the 55.00 level. Having opened slightly softer, RUB promptly firmed on the back of the continuing upturn in crude prices. RUB even flirted with 54.90, but this turned out to be a strong resistance level, so it eventually closed at 55.03, having gained 0.8% against USD. Brent also enjoyed strong session, gaining 1.3% to USD 57.83/bbl. Trading flows also recovered (MICEX reported USD 3.6bn), but remained moderate from a historical perspective. Meantime, the EM universe continued to underperform: the EM FX index closed down 0.4%, with, TRY weakening 1.2% and ZAR slipping 0.7% against USD. Commodities-based currencies ignored the oil recovery: NOK lost 1.6% and NZD declined 0.6%.

Yesterday, banks secured USD 1.4bn at the one-week FX repo auction, at an average rate of 1.21%. Consequently, banks’ FX repo debt to the CBR will increase USD 1.7bn to USD 32.7bn today.

Maxim Korovin, Tatiana Zueva
VTB Capital analysts